“My Lord!” Kan’s voice cut through the cacophony. “We must leave!”

  The throne hall was crumbling before their eyes.

  Walls cracked and disintegrated; entire slabs of stone fell like mountain slides. The ceiling, held up by the last remaining columns, threatened to collapse at any moment.

  Dan turned toward the exit. But his body wouldn’t obey.

  Everything inside him was hollow.

  Too much power had gone into that final strike.

  He took a step—and collapsed to one knee.

  "I can’t move…", the Lord thought, trying to rise.

  The air around him shuddered. Dust settled on his shoulders, but he couldn’t brush it off.

  "Am I… going to die like this?..", his eyes began to close.

  The world grew blurry, muffled.

  The roar of the collapsing hall turned into a distant echo, as if he were slowly sinking into black water.

  “My Lord!” Kan surged forward, his voice trembling with fury and fear for his Master.

  The next instant, the heavy knight dropped to one knee beside him and shielded Dan with his own body, looming over the powerless form like a dome.

  Stone fragments battered against Kan’s armor, shattering on impact. Boulders weighing dozens of kilograms rained down on him from above, but he didn’t budge a centimeter.

  He stood.

  He stood as if his armor were forged not from metal, but from pure resolve.

  “My Lord… it’s alright,” Kan’s voice was barely audible beneath the tumult.

  Through his fading vision, Dan could only see the silhouette of his Warden.

  “No… I must…” Dan whispered, his voice barely a breath.

  Completely drained, the Lord couldn’t even hold himself up, kneeling with one hand braced against the marble floor. He fell. His eyes were almost shut when suddenly, somewhere deep inside, he heard…

  Laughter.

  "Huh? What is that..?", Dan didn’t understand where this bright, ringing voice was coming from.

  Amidst the roar of falling stone, he heard only it. So alien to this place, so clear and alive.

  Dan lay on the ground. Darkness no longer radiated from him—it shrouded his sight. He was slowly slipping into the dark. His eyelids felt a thousand times heavier than any of the boulders falling upon his Warden’s body.

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  And within the darkness slowly consuming the Lord’s eyes, a thread flashed. Golden. Thin as a spider’s silk. And another. And another after it. Golden hair, flowing within the gloom like wheat in a spring wind.

  “No,” Dan cried out, finding the last of his strength. “I must return.”

  His eyes flew open. The Lord’s fist struck the stone floor. He rose again.

  "I must return", his inner voice rang with determination.

  Dan got to his feet. Drawing his shoulders in slightly, he gathered the dregs of his power and sharply flung his arms out wide. A torrent of magical energy erupted from him like a shockwave from a detonation. The explosive wave of power swept through the hall, clearing dust and debris.

  For a second, the path was clear.

  “Kan!” Dan shouted, nodding toward the tunnel leading out.

  “I see it!” the Warden responded, scooping up his Lord.

  With Dan in his arms, Kan leapt into the hole in the wall like a cannonball. A moment later, they were in the corridor.

  The Lord and his Warden stood in the stone corridor. Its walls trembled. The web of mana barely illuminated the space. Yet, the tunnel had withstood the battle.

  All that remained of the once majestic, gleaming hall were ruins and dust. The ceiling had long since caved in, burying the space under slabs of heavy marble; only the rumble and crack of breaking stone still echoed from what was once Mirin’s sanctuary.

  Dan slowly approached the wall and placed a hand against it. He could clearly feel the stone’s vibrations. And he also felt the life leaving this place. The once-gleaming walls, interwoven with threads of magical energy, were fading.

  Suddenly, Dan understood.

  "This Reality is dying… but how? I didn’t destroy the Core", The Lord’s eyes showed surprise and utter confusion.

  The Lord realized the Rift would soon collapse and he needed to leave faster.

  "Could it be… that Mirin himself was the Core of this World?! No time to think, need to get out. I wonder how much longer it will hold?", Dan thought, removing his hand from the cold wall, "And that laughter I heard… Was that her? But why?"

  The Lord of Darkness let out a slow exhale, turned toward the exit, and the moment he tried to take a step, he collapsed to the ground.

  “My Lord!” The heavy Warden was at Dan’s side in an instant. “Lean on me. Rest. You’ve done enough.”

  Kan slowly lifted Dan, slung one of the Lord’s arms over his shoulder, and gripping him around the waist, began slowly walking toward the exit.

  “Kan…” Dan whispered, barely audible. “We have little time… This Reality will collapse soon… Use your power.”

  “But, my Lord…” Kan objected, understanding what his Master was asking.

  “Don’t worry about me. It is my power, after all,” Dan smiled weakly.

  Kan nodded silently. Dan’s gaze fell to the floor; his body hummed with exhaustion, his legs barely holding him. The arm he had used to end the battle hung limp like a rag. Dan couldn’t move it. The arm hurt. For the first time in thousands of years, the Lord of Darkness felt physical pain.

  "Calling Kan was the right decision after all… he’s the only one who can…"

  But before he could finish the thought, they stood before the glowing, though now dimmer, pink-violet crack in space—the exit from the Rift. In a fraction of a second, they had moved from the end of the corridor to its beginning.

  Kan released Dan and fell to one knee, bracing himself against the ground with a heavy hand. In the tomblike silence, each labored breath the mighty knight took was clearly audible. He had spent all his energy on that leap.

  “M-My Lord… I…” the Warden spoke, breathing heavily.

  “It’s alright. Thank you. I’ll manage from here,” Dan said, placing a hand on the black pauldrons of his Warden. “Return.”